As one of conventional recording apparatuses, an ink jet recording apparatus is known in which a recording medium is intermittently fed in a recording section. Each time the feed is interrupted, ink droplets are ejected from a recording head over a certain width in a direction perpendicular to the feed direction, thereby recording an image. Unless the spacing between a nozzle surface of a recording head of an ink jet recording apparatus, which ejects ink in a recording section, and a recording medium is maintained to be small with high accuracy, an image is degraded due to a variation in arrival time of ejected ink droplets. If a space is not maintained between the recording head and the medium, a smear occurs due to contact between the recording head and the recording medium and the recording head may be damaged.
In some ink jet recording apparatuses, therefore, a carriage holding a recording head is scanned with high accuracy using a guide shaft of good straightness, and a recording medium is attracted onto a flat platen under a vacuum suction. Generally, in the apparatus using such a suction platen, a vacuum pump, a fan or the like is employed as a negative pressure generating source, and air in an enclosed space below the platen is evacuated to the outside to create a negative pressure in the space (i.e. to provide a pressure that is lower than ambient atmospheric pressure).
Recently, to meet a demand for recording an image without surrounding margins as with a borderless photograph or image, there has been proposed an apparatus in which ink is ejected over a range greater than the width of a recording medium to form a borderless image.
For roll-fed recording media, conventional problems in the recording operation occur at the point where a printed media is to be cut in a cutting zone. Cutting is performed after an image has been printed. In conventional image forming apparatuses, the printed media is only held on one side of the cutter by the vacuum platen or hold-down device. However, this method has drawbacks. When the printed media is cut by the conventional apparatus, it has a tendency to pull away under its own weight and tear as it is cut. This problem adds additional cost as the recorded image must be re-printed wasting material and operator cost and time.
In inkjet printing, image quality is affected by a combination of factors—one of them being the degree of uniformity of the distance between the nozzles on the printhead and the media. It is also important that the media be held down sufficiently well so as to avoid the printhead from touching the media (which ruins the print and can damage the printhead).